Author Comments

Hey there everyone, Wicked rider is a retro motorcycle racing game, with a similar style to 'outrun', 'lotus' and 'crazy cars' series in Amiga/DOS. There are 15 tracks, betting rivals and upgrades. Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you enjoy the game.

(In fullscreen mode, P, X and N keys doesn't work because of security limitations in flash, it is not something I can edit, sorry about that. Also in some old keyboards pressing 2 arrow keys and spacebar at the same time doesn't work, so that's the reason why there's that much alternative keys for activating nitro :) )

Rated 3 / 5 stars2012-10-01 19:57:47

There's some things I like about this game. The graphics, for what they are, are pretty neat and well done. It really feels like I could be playing this on an old Nintendo. I especially liked watching the backgrounds as I cruised around the tracks.

A few things got on my nerves. First of all, it seemed like the beginning was awfully difficult. I'm used to being able to win the first couple of races easily when I start a new racing game, but it took me 3-4 races before I even earned any cash. Once I was able to buy some upgrades and could win some races I really enjoyed the game, but you may be losing people that aren't willing to wait through that initial learning curve.

Second of all, the controls were all right...when they worked. You made a comment in the description that holding 2 arrows and spacebar at the same time wouldn't work. Well, if pushed the up arrow and hit a side arrow too soon at the start of the race, it completely cut my accelerator off (and I definitely wasn't using nitro at this point). I also liked switching between the arrow keys and WASD mid-race if my fingers got a little tired, but the same bug would occur where the accelerator would cut off. Maybe it is just my keyboard that's the issue, and I was able to circumvent the issue by being careful, but it was still annoying.

Third, some of the opponents were all over the track, and it was damn near impossible to avoid bumping them. Okay, I can accept that as a challenge, but it would piss me off when one of them would randomly go through me from behind, causing me to lose speed. Shouldn't they push me forward when I'm hit from behind the same way they are when I bump them?

And last but not least, I think it's impossible to finish 1st on track fifteen, even with a fully upgraded bike. Holding the accelerator down the entire time, not touching any opponents or walls, and picking up nearly ever nitro, I still haven't finished better than 4th. Even track fourteen is close to impossible, but I've finished 2nd only when I couldn't get around the leader, so I'm willing to accept that it can be done. I think the solution here is as simple as putting more nitro pick-ups on the track, as they seemed to be decreasing in quantity as I progressed through the game.

Overall, it's a fun little game that could be made even better with some minor improvements.

Acceleration bug sounds weird, I'll try to reproduce it but never encountered before, might be related to fullscreen or old keyboard issue.

You are right about opponents. Normally, the opponents who are behind and close were going to be showed on the screen, so that you could know they are approaching and re-position yourself but my current code is a mess and I couldn't manage to add this into the final build :) Now they suddenly appear and hit you from the back. Even if they were going to push you forward, probably it would have been confusing in the current build because of this.

By the way, it is definitely possible to finish 1st on every track. Using nitro at the right time counts. I know it's hard and not up to everyone's tastes but I wanted to give a real challenge for twitch-gamers like me at the two final tracks.